I’m sitting here, waiting for my flight back from Fort Lauderdale to Boston. The Inman Connect High Net conference ended yesterday morning, and I stayed an extra day, to do some more “work”.
Look for plenty of posts in the next several hours, and more, tomorrow, as I recover and review all the post entries I’ve been collecting over the past couple of days.
I will also report on the conference.
My takeaway?
1) If there was a bubble (over-priced properties), and if there was a bubble in Boston, then it’s over. This doesn’t mean that sales will recover, going forward, they may be at the level they are now, for the foreseeable future, meaning, 25% off last year’s sales figures. Prices, however, have only dropped about 2%, from what I heard at the conference, and, according to some of the experts in attendance, we may not see much more of a devaluation.
2) The next hot financial instrument will be home valuation protection insurance. No one’s figured out how to create the product, yet, but it seems as though it’s getting close. Basically, you’d buy a policy just like you do for your car or for your home furnishings, similar to a home warranty. It would cover you in case you had to sell your property at a loss, at some point.
The problems are, it’s hard to make this type of policy cheap enough to be accessible to the average home buyer, and, there is also a potential for fraud, by homebuyers.
I think it’s a great idea, and I hope it comes to fruition.
I can imagine that the emergence of these policies could either fuel a new bubble or, a moderate drop in prices. I’d explain how, but right now this lady is bleating into her cell phone so loudly, I can’t pay attention.
